Octopus Energy Generation has announced that it is extending its Fan Club out into West Yorkshire, with the launch of its third local wind tariff in Halifax.
The 2MW turbine – the biggest yet in the club – was built by Siemens and forms part of the Ovenden Moor Wind Farm.
It will now be used to discount local customers who sign up to Octopus Energy’s Fan Club tariff up to 50% off the unit rate of electricity. According to the company this can save customers up to £350 on their annual bill.
Customers are able to use the Fan Club dashboard to find out when local power is cheaper due to higher winds, and plan energy-intensive tasks accordingly.
The tariff was initially launched in January 2021, with two wind farms in Yorkshire and South Wales. It has proved popular since, with 10,000 people getting in touch with Octopus asking for a wind turbine near their home, according to the company.
Recent research from Opinion Matters showed that nine in 10 people support wind turbines in their local community, if it means cheaper electricity.
“We’ve been blown away by the volume of requests and positive sentiment towards our Fan Club, which offers people 100% local green energy at discounted rates,” said Zoisa North-Bond, CEO of Octopus Energy Generation.
“Welcoming customers onto our Number 3 Fan in Halifax means more people can benefit from cheap, green energy when it’s abundant locally. This is especially important as people are facing much higher energy bills this winter.
“But we are not going to stop here – we are working round the clock to add many more wind turbines to our Fan Club model, putting money back into people’s pockets whilst driving renewables at scale.”
In November 2021, the Octopus Energy Group announced it was aiming to raise £4 billion to fund a global expansion of its ‘Fan Club’ tariff model and support gigawatts of associated renewable energy projects through 2030 given its success in the UK. And in June it unveiled its first renewable energy deal in Germany, with plans to build a 35MW onshore wind farm in Hessen, near Frankfurt.
Meanwhile in the UK, it partnered with wind turbine manufacturer EWT earlier in August, to repower hundreds of existing older onshore turbines. The company noted that there is the potential to bring these repowered wind turbines onto a Fan Club-style model.
Octopus Energy Generation now manages 3.2GW of renewable energy assets across Europe, and is planning to have at least 1,000 wind turbines on its Fan Club in the UK by the end of the decade.
People who have a HX2 Halifax postcode can now sign up to join the latest ‘tentacle’ of the Fan Club.
